Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Curling Up With a Wildcat

Finally, after a good couple years of struggle and learning, I've managed to publish the first novel in, what I hope, becomes a series of adventures. Tales I will get to invent and share for many years to come, trading them with friends and lovers and perfect strangers. I like the idea of stories going back and forth, getting richer with each telling and reading, kind of like speculating on an economy of dreams.

There are so many tales I want to tell, and in the telling to live them. Not all will be in the world I've made for the heroine of this series, and not all of the ones that are will even be about her adventures.

Still, this heroine, my Kamalapur, will always be special to me.

Artist: Zach Turnipseed

This is why, even though I will tell many stories with many other characters, all different and special in their way, Kama gets pride of place, including this blog's name. It is her space as much as it is mine.

Unlike any character I conceived before or since, Kama was less an invention or idea, and more of an unstoppable force. She used my words, my imagination, to bring herself into the world, growling and struggling.

She was impatient to be born, accepted no excuses on those nights I was too tired, and demanded freedom without compromise. If I threw her a challenge, she ate it whole and dared me to do better. Whenever I came out on top, and my language or word choice started to take more control of the story than her, she swore three-fold revenge and took it out on me in the edits. When agency after agency closed their doors to her, she snorted and said, "Then we shall make it better, and make it on our own."

Kama was also the perfect companion, inspiring strength and courage in me I'd never known. Helped me to become healthier, wiser, more attentive, and to begin living my own truth. I'm sure she would say it was only a matter of convenience, that she needed me stronger if she was ever to be free of my imagination. But, just as she begins to learn the value of allies and a family, so too have I learned from her self mastery and independence. We both keep learning.

So here we begin then, the first of Kama's legends available for readers, and I dedicate this space to her. I'll hopefully learn enough about blogging soon to make it a bit more comfy and personal, something uniquely ours.